


The End of an Era

by whatabeautifulmess



Series: Repetition of History [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 02:43:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatabeautifulmess/pseuds/whatabeautifulmess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end of one era, but the beginning of another, and nothing can stop her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End of an Era

Lily stared out across the massed ranks of her followers, her subordinates and worshippers and _believers,_ and as she looked at them, she smiled. With them behind her, she couldn't fail.

...

Nowadays, the thing Lily hated most of all was the thing that she was told most often: she wasn't that much like Voldemort. Not many people dared to - only her family and Teddy - but she felt like screaming whenever they did. She knew! She knew it better than any of them, and that was precisely why she would win!

Teddy told her everytime he saw that he knew she still loved him, and so she had decided to turn her biggest weakness into her greatest strength. Voldemort had been defeated because he didn't - couldn't - love (she was Harry Potter's daughter for God's sake; she knew how the Dark Lord had been defeated), but for Lily it would be different. She _could_ love, and that meant she cared about what she was doing, it _meant_ something to her. There would be no change of heart for her, not now, not ever.

...

"My lady?"

Lily turned to see who was speaking. "Christian, what is it?" she said, looking at him with bright eyes and a feverish, infectious smile.

"There's..someone here to see you. From the Ministry."

"Very well, send them along." Lily looked out across the No Man's Land between her side and theirs to see a familiar blue-haired figure walking towards her.

...

Teddy. She'd always had a weakness when it came to him. The other Weasley girls had all fallen for him at one time or another, but none of them had fallen as hard as Lily had. He was like a slippery slope: easy enough to slide down, but impossible to climb back up.

She'd promised herself that she would try, though, as soon as she started at Hogwarts. She didn't want to be a slave to her childhood, didn't want to let him keep hurting her.

She had a few relationships during her first few years at school, but they never lasted, and so she always ran back to Teddy.

And, just as inevitably, he would be in a relationship with someone else; more often than not, it was one of her cousins, but once he'd worked his way through all of them it became a succession of stupid, twittering bitches, typically tall and blonde, spouting the latest gossip from _Witch Weekly_ like it was actually _true._

She hated each and every one of them, and she nearly convinced herself that she hated Teddy.

Nearly wasn't quite enough, though. She couldn't bring herself to leave, and because he wasn't inclined to push her away, they always ended up in another affair. They were never caught - they got pretty good at sneaking around - which was probably just as well: Lily's parents would have killed them both if they knew - Lily was underage, only fourteen at the time, and Teddy was ten years older.

By the time the summer before her fifth year rolled around, though, she'd gotten fed up with their cataclysmic 'relationships' - if you could call them that, as brief and brutal as they were. She was sick of seeing a traitor in the mirror, especially since the only person she was betraying was herself.

...

Lily looked at Teddy, her face a mask, features carefully composed. "What do you want, Teddy? I'm busy."

"Don't do this, Lily. Call it off."

"Don't do what?" she retorted, glaring at him. "Don't try to make the world a better place?"

Teddy stared at her in disbelief. "You can't honestly believe that?" he said. When she didn't answer, he continued: "Look, Lils, I know you still love me, so just-"

"Do you mind, Teddy? You're starting to sound like a broken record," she said quietly, but with enough force for him to take a step back. "I do _not_ still love you. That's why I called it off with you in the first place." Teddy looked sceptical as she continued. "So could you go now, please, Teddy? You're not going to stop me. I know I'm doing the right thing. I don't want to hurt anyone, but if you get in my way, I swear to Godric I will if I have to. Do you want to push me?" Teddy stayed silent. "I said, _do you want to push me, Teddy Lupin?_ No? Didn't think so. Now, just go away and tell them what I said, OK?"

Teddy nodded, eyes wide, and moved away, back towards the ranks of aurors and supporters of the Ministry. Lily called out for him to stop just before he vanished from view.

"Let...let them know I love them, OK?"

Teddy turned bach to face her. "Why are you doing this, Lils? You're nothing like him-!"

"You think I don't know that?" Lily screamed. "I know I'm not the same as him, I'm not _trying_ to _be_ him! I'm doing this because I know it's what's right, not because I want power!"

"Oh really?"

"Yes! I don't _want_ power, I just know I'm the only one fit to be in that position, that I'm the only one who can use it properly!"

"Lily...you don't think that, you can't..."

"I can and I do," she spat. "Now get out of here!"

He walked away without another word, but Lily knew she had just lost someone else.

...

After pushing Teddy away, she had hurled herself at the first person she could find, just to distract herself from the hollow feeling in her stomach. That person just so happened to be Scorpius Malfoy.

She knew she didn't love him, and she thought he knew too. It didn't matter though: it was all a matter of appearances. Scorpius helped to stop her thinking about Teddy _every_ second of the day; and he helped her to present the right image: if you were with someone, it showed that people wanted to be around you, and that was the sort of impression that Lily needed to make more and more often as her ideas took flight.

She stayed with Scorpius for three years, until a year after she finished school, and every second was a surprise. Lily knew that he hated what she was doing, that he didn't believe like she did, and so it wasn't a shock when he up and left in the middle of the night - for all his Gryffindor courage in the middle of a fight, he hated starting them and avoided confrontation like the plague. Lily didn't mind. She might not have loved him, but she did care about him, and she wanted him to be happy: that way, he'd be easier to keep safe, and that was what this was all about - keeping everyone safe. She also knew that Dominique had been in love with him for years, so she didn't even think about revenge when she found out they were together, like she knew he would expect her to. Apart from anything else, she didn't have any time: it was all so much bigger than she could ever have dreamed it would be.

It hurt, a little, to learn that Scorpius was standing against, along with her whole family, but she couldn't allow herself to think about it. They'd see it her way soon enough. They had to.

...

"Ma'am...Lily. Are you all right?"

Lily blinked dazedly, turning away from Teddy's retreating figure. "Oh. Christian. Yes, I'm fine. Give me a moment, I want to speak to them all before we start."

"Of course. I'm glad you're not hurt, Lily."

"Why?" she snapped, whirling to face him.

"Because I lo-because it would...jeopardise the cause. You're our leader."

"Of course. Follow me."

She walked forwards, placing herself in front of the one group of people that she knew would stand with her, through thick or thin. She smiled; she was lucky to have such loyal supporters.

"Our time has come, my friends! We are on the brink of a great change for the Wizarding world. The end of one era, but the beginning of another, better one. We must take power, because it is our duty to protect the people of this planet. We must lead the Wizarding world out of hiding to protect them, in the same way that we must put the Muggles in their rightful place for their own safety. Only once we have done this can the world truly be safe."

There was a great cheer from in front of her, and Lily smiled wider, feeling even more confident in her chosen path.

"Today, we make history. Together we cannot lose. Onwards!"

The massed ranks before her surged forwards, moving in front of her and charging across the barren emptiness of the No Man's Land between them and eternal glory. It was starting. And nothing would ever be the same again.


End file.
